Sister Joan Chittister famously said, "We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again." Reflecting on that journey -- a blog at a time -- is the focus of this site.

Thursday, September 30, 2010

The Promised Rowan Williams Rant

I was, of course, irate when I read that Williams spoke against endorsing relationships for gay and lesbian clergy and bishops because “the cost to the Church overall was too great to be borne at that point.’" I even sent out a warning that I “felt a Rowan Williams Rant” coming on – but was too busy to write it.

And I’m still too busy to write it. But after the news of the week, I’ve gone from irate to righteously indignant, so here goes:

While Rowan Williams is whining about homosexuality "wounding the side" of the institutional church, he remains blind to the cancer of homophobia that is spreading in the Body of Christ. And it's time somebody pointed out the difference.

I'm remembering my experience on an 8-day Ignatian silent retreat with the Sisters of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. (Yes, really.) The long-story-short is that in working with the sister assigned as my spiritual director, we entered into conversation about vocation – and she invited me to explore whether or not I had a vocation to the episcopate. (To be a bishop.)

I answered quickly and definitively that I was absolutely clear that I was not called to be a bishop because I believe a bishop is called to guard the unity of the church and I didn’t give a rat’s tail about the unity of the church.

She replied – equally quickly and definitively – by asking me which church was it that I didn’t give a rat’s tail about: the institutional church or the church as the Body of Christ.

And I told her I thought our time was up for the day. Because I was busted.

The truth is I care deeply about the unity of the Body of Christ. I care deeply about those members who have been baptized into Christ’s Body and then isolated, segregated, marginalized, excluded and dismissed because they happen to be gay or lesbian. Paul was right about the whole “one member of the body cannot say to another I have no need of you” thing – and yet that is what is and has been said to the Church’s gay and lesbian members for generations. It's what Rowan Williams says when he calls us a "wound in the side of the church." And it is time for it to stop.

And it’s not just time for it to stop because some gay or lesbian folks are called into both ordained ministry and a covenanted relationship with the love of their life.

It’s time for it to stop because when Rowan Williams says “Homosexuality is a Wound in the Church’s Side” he adds more fuel to the fire of homophobia that drives people – especially young people to self-loathing, to despair and – far too frequently – to suicide.

This week’s news has been a horrifying parade of young lives lost to the cancer of homophobia. Seth Walsh. Asher Brown. Billy Lucas. Tyler Clementi. They all took their own lives after being branded as gay by bullies whose abuse convinced them their lives were not worth living.

And while Rowan Williams is busy worrying about the “unity of the church,” the church he’s so worried about is overtly complicit in the spread of the disease that killed these children – the disease of homophobia.

Because here’s the deal with wounds: they heal. They may take a little time, they make take a little tending, they may leave a little scar … but they heal. And sometimes they even make us stronger for having fought the battles worth fighting. And if homosexuality – or more accurately, the fight to fully include homosexual children of God equally in the work and witness of the church – inflicts a few wounds then they are wounds the church should bear proudly as it lives into its calling to be the Body of Christ on earth.

Even Jesus showed up on Easter Day with a few wounds to show for the work he’d been called to do – why on earth shouldn’t the church that purports to be His body – to follow in His footsteps – expect some of the same? “The cost to the Church overall is too great to be borne at that point?’" Give me a break.

I came out of my 8-day retreat still clear I was not called to the episcopate but also clear about the difference between the institution and the incarnation. And so today I’m yearning for Williams to spend a little time with a Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus who might challenge him to figure out the difference between the institutional church and the church as the Body of Christ. And might send him out ready to suck it up and quit whining about wounds and get to work preserving the unity of the Body of Christ by healing it of its homophobia. Because the cost to the Church overall is too great for us to settle for anything less.

32 comments:

Excellent! Homophobia is the cancer in the Body of Christ, the real wounds to the church. I have often said that when people in positions of power such as ++Rowan continue to talk of LGBT people as "other" and "trouble", they fuel the fear and hatred that leads to the tragedies we've seen reported this week.

I haven't shouted an "Amen" since I was a teenager in a Methodist revival, but I'll sure shout out one now! THANK YOU Susan Russell for saying exactly what needed to be said in response to ++Williams hurtful words.

I must admit I rolled my eyes and didn't read the actual text of what ++Rowan said until this morning. I didn't realise that he said that Homosexuality is a wound in the side of the Church.

No, it isn't. My homosexuality (and that of any number of gays and lesbians and whatever else) in [or out] of the church is NOT a problem. It's not a problem for the church, either; any more than the colour of my eyes or of my skin or of my hair is a problem.

The way that people in the church react to my orientation is indeed kicking up a lot of dust in the church. But it is the attitudes and approaches (or "homophobia" to use a shorthand phrase) that is the problem.

My.orientation.is.not.a.problem. That's how God created me.

How dare he say that homosexuality is a "wound" in the church? Stop pathologising my life, and start healing attitudes.

32 years I have been an Episcopalian. I am on vestry at my parish. I am on a diocesan committee. I am exhausted by the Church at times when it comes to her complacency. Yet, i discern my call to the priesthood. I am a believer in community and healing, but i will say this. I think the time has come and is past for putting up with the debate of human rights. Rowan should step down, or TEC should cut ties with the communion. We must not accept homophobia. There is nothing left to discuss. We are talking about human rights. There is no middle ground. there is right and there is wrong.

I had until a few moments ago been revelling in memories of a Fiftieth High School Graduation Reunion back in good ol’ Iowa. And then I read the report of our Primate’s appalling words that I cannot bring myself to repeat. I had been jubilant about having received earlier this evening a message of thanks from Iowa Supreme Court Justice, Marc Cady, the hero who wrote the superbly thoughtful ruling on equal rights to marriage that carried my home State’s highest court unanimously. Justice Cady is a (Republican and I believe Roman Catholic) citizen of my home town, and I think his reasoning will or certainly ought to convince our federal Supreme Court of its argument. I’m still slowly plowing through Diarmaid MacCullough’s masterpiece, CHRISTIANITY, and had shown to friends the Archbishop’s praise for the book at the top of its cover’s list of glistening reviews. Then I was brought to read his chilling statement about our—my—supposed effect upon Christ’s Body, the Church!I would have gone to bed tonight in despair had I not read your characteristically clear, courageous, and comforting reply to His Most Reverend Lordship’s Grace. My humble and joyful thanks to you! AMEN and AMEN!!! (I hope that’s not sexist. : )

Thank you Susan.In the parable of the Good Samaritan, Jesus gave those who listen their marching orders. "Go and do thou likewise." It wasn't a request or a plea, it was an order he issued. I have always thought the bracelet that reads "WWJD" (What Would Jesus Do?) should read WWTGSD, what would the Good Samaritan do? The Good Samaritan would welcome every child of God to equal participation and standing in the infinite love of God. And I also welcome all homosexual, bisexual, transexual and heterosexual children of God to this blessing.

If the unity of the (institutional) Church trumps all else, then what's our excuse for being Anglicans? What was the Reformation all about (granted that it turned out to be a very mixed bag on all sides)? If +Rowan really cares that much about unity over truth, then why has he not already submitted to Rome? (Oh, that's right -- as Eric Mascall said fifty+ years ago, "I should have gone last Tuesday week, had not my wife objected.")

Actually, I'm happy to accept that homosexuality is a wound in the side of the church. The church, as well all know, is the Body of Christ, so a wound in the side of the church is a wound in the body of Christ. Now, we're all, I hope, familiar with the image of an angel hovering at Christ's side on the cross, holding a chalice, which is being filled with his blood pouring from the wound in his side. So, I'm perfectly happy to think that homosexuality is the thing (one of the many things) which brings the life-giving blood of Christ to the people of God. It is, after all, through his wounds that we are healed. Th wound is not something which kills the body, but something which releases the redemptive power of Christ.I'm not a fan of RW. I think he's sold the pass. But he is a subtle thinker and I wonder if his image here wasn't acarefully coded one, by which he salved his own conscience.

Let's be careful about what he said and what he didn't. Rowan is a very subtle thinker and speaker, and one must listen for subtleties.

The Daily Mail article states that the Archbishop "said that he had been 'conscious' of the issue of homosexuality as 'a wound in the whole ministry' (of the church?) since his appointment as Archbishop of Canterbury in 2002."

Not "homosexuality," but "the issue of homosexuality:" An important difference. And it's a "wound," not in individual homosexual persons, or GLBTs as a group, but "in the whole ministry." Another important difference.

And, well, if he said that, just that, only that, then it's pretty clear that he's right.

So what makes it so? What makes "the issue of homosexuality" such an issue that it is "a wound in the ministry?" Well, I would agree wholeheartedly with SCG, who said that "homophobia is the cancer in the Body of Christ, the real wounds to the church." I rather imagine that Rowan might endorse such a statement as well, if he believed himself at liberty to do so.

Were it not for homophobia, "the issue of homosexuality" would be a non-issue, or at most one well on the way to resolution.

The Archbishop of Canterbury has always been snide and uppity regarding LGBT Bishops, clergy and laity at TEC/Anglican Communion while successfully avoiding the acknowledgment of the bloodflow of LGBT Christians in Africa and beyond.

Messy business, we Gays!

· Archbishop Rowan avoided mentioning the hate crime attack, and few days later, death of Michael Causner in Liverpool which happened DURING the Lambeth Conference...Dr. Williams yammered on and on about ¨lifes real challenges¨ throughout the Anglican Communion but didn´t discuss LGBT Anglicans and OUR persecution at Church/beyond.

· In 2009 Rowan Williams pushed for a punishing Anglican Covenant on the LGBT blood-drenched ground of Kingston, Jamaica at the ACC Meeting...++Rowan didn´t mention the LGBT crimes of hate that are the very worst in the Western Hemisphere in Jamaica which are a ugly, and daily, reminder of our abuse, suffering and death by murder in Jamaica.

Rowan Williams behavior/moraless leadership is unthinkable in the face of REAL crimes against humanity...our humanity and other peoples too...he turns away from the real outcomes of bullies running rampant at the Anglican Communion/Global South and Gafcon.

Welcome to my blog ...

... where I try to be really clear about what I'm clear about. For example:

Religious persecution is when you're prevented from exercising your beliefs, not when you're prevented from IMPOSING your beliefs.

========

Until we end the blatant and indefensible discrimination of DOMA we are not living up to the pledge we make to be a nation of liberty and justice for all, we are not providing the equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to same-sex couples and we are failing to defend the self-evident truth that our forbearers fought to protect: that ALL people are created equal.

============ Using "biblical standards" to condemn those who understand that sexual orientation is morally neutral makes as much sense as using "biblical standards" to condemn astronomers who understand that the earth revolves around the sun. The Bible may have said it but that doesn't always settle it. ============ It's liberty and justice for all -- not some. It's respect the dignity of every human being -- not just straight ones. Got it? Great. Let's do it.

====== In order to keep moving forward toward liberty and justice for all we can't just be right about what the 1st Amendment protects. We have to be smart about how we respond to those who skipped the 9th Commandment and think lying is a Traditional Family Value. ======= Jesus said "Love your neighbor." Not "Love your neighbor unless your neighbor is gay."

Basic Bio

A cradle Episcopalian second generation Dodger fan ENFJ native of Los Angeles I was ordained in 1996 and currently serve as a Senior Associate at All Saints Church, Pasadena.
My family consists of my wife Lori, 2 dogs, (Luna and Betsy), 3 cats (Maui, Cherokee and Harold) and our four nearly-grown kids: Jim, Brian, Grace and Emily.
My life in the church has included everything from Junior Altar Guild with my Aunt Gretchen to my “obligatory young adult lapsed phase” to a tour of duty on the St. Paul’s, Ventura vestry where I also worked as parish secretary to a life-heart-soul changing experience as part of the Cursillo community to serving on my parish ECW Board to seminary at the School of Theology in Claremont to associate/day school chaplain positions at St. Mark’s, Altadena and St. Peter’s, San Pedro to Executive Director of Claiming the Blessing to my current parish position at All Saints Church. It’s been a long and winding road and the journey continues: an inch at a time.

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